About Me

I have worked for over 25 years in Leeds as an Integrative Psychotherapist. My work has been in health, education, and voluntary sector settings as well as in independent practice. I have taught on Psychoanalytic, Psychodynamic and Humanistic courses to from Certificate to Masters level at the University of Leeds and within other training institutions. I currently divide my time between my independent practice and a half time post in the Student Counselling Centre at the University of Leeds. My special interests at the University are in developing and running therapeutic meditation groups and online mental health resources. The latter has included designing and launching the first online counselling service in UK Higher Education.

I have chaired and run public lectures in the city for over 15 years for organisations including WPF North and The Yorkshire Association for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (YAPP) & I currently do this work for The Harry Guntrip Psychotherapy Trust. I am a past Chair of YAPP and past Deputy Chair and Chair of Ethics at North Staffs Association for Psychotherapy. I was the Reviews Editor of Psychotherapy and Politics International for 5 years and between 1998 and 2006 regularly published psychotherapeutic book reviews and acted as a referee in professional journals.

I have a long standing interest in Eastern physical culture and philosophy. I began practicing meditation in 1996 and in 1997 began a 5 year study of Taekwondo. I have studied Wing Chun Kung Fu for the last 20 years under Sifu Colin Ward and since around 2005, gained an interest in the yoga, which traditionally is preparatory to meditation. I became an instructor at the Northern Wing Chun Kung Fu Association in 2008 and qualified as a Dru Meditation teacher in 2011 and as a Dru Yoga Teacher in 2020. I continue to undertake advanced trainings in both these disciplines and integrate my learning from them into my therapeutic practice. I believe it is helpful to attend to our spiritual, mental and physical health but neither have nor teach religious affiliations. In Western depth psychology, Freud and Jung taught us to think of ourselves not simply as physical beings but as energetic beings. Yoga, Meditation and Wing Chun are all in harmony with these perspectives; different therapeutic approaches to similar matters. My approach to these disciplines is integrative, which is consistent with my approach to psychotherapy; I attempt to understand myself and others holistically.